The Palme d’Or went to a film that few expected

The committee did something surprising He was, this year’s festival award winners were announced by program director Greta Gerwig on Saturday evening. Many may have expected the Palme d’Or to go to Emilia Pérez, Substance or Bird, but in the end it went to Sean Baker’s Anora, presenting the top prize to independent production studio Neon for the fifth year in a row.

After 7 years of the wonderful Florida project that he presented at the Cannes Film Festival and 3 after Red Rocket, Sean Baker returns to the festival with a story whose elements we will not bet on easily to win the Palme d’Or at a festival that in recent years has awarded awards of a different kind. from the movies.

The Anora was a surprise, especially viewed from the ground up What a big standing ovation Received on release day, it was 7.5 minutes long, which is much less than the films we listed above as favorites.

In Anora, Baker recounts stripper Anora’s encounter with the Russian gangster’s son Vanya at the store where she worked in New York. Vanya suggests they travel together for a week, gives her as much money as she wants, and they end up in Las Vegas to get married. Then dangerous things begin, as Vanya’s father disapproves of this and sends his men to cancel the wedding. The chase begins, which adds a touch of the film to the phrase “us against the world.”

When the victory was announced, the crowd in Cannes turned up the volume and the applause continued for about 12 minutes, this time.

In addition to Anora, the films of Emilia Pérez (the only one to receive two awards, one for the panel and the other for the performances of the four heroines), The Substance (for Varga’s screenplay) and Grand Tour (directed by Miguel Gomez) won the awards, while Lanthimos gave another actor a chance to shine, with Jesse Plemons taking home the prizes. He won the Best Actor award for the movie Kinds of Kindness.

At this year’s event, three honorable mentions were given, one to Meryl Streep, one to George Lucas, and one to Studio Ghibli, which has given us so much great animation. Lucas’ award was the most emotional, as the award was presented to him by Francis Ford Coppola.

All the awards at Cannes 2024 in detail

Golden Palm:Anora, Sean Baker

Grand prize: Everything we imagine as light

Committee award: Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard

Special award: The Holy Fig Seed, Muhammad Rasoulof

Best Actress: The entire crew of Emilia Perez

best actor: Jesse Plemons, Types of Kindness

Best director: Miguel Gomez, The Grand Tour

Best scenario: Article, Coralie Farkas

Golden camera: Armand, Halfdan Ullmann Tudel

The golden camera is a special mention: Mongrel, Qiang Weiliang and Yu Qiao-yin

The golden palm tree is short in length: The man who cannot remain silent, Nebojsa Slejcevic

Short length, special referenceBad moment, Daniel Soares

Golden Eye Award for Documentary Films: Ernest Cole: Lost and Found and the Cures of Dreams

The strange palm tree: Three kilometers to the end of the world

* Main image: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images/Ideal Images